Extracts from a report by the Washington Post on Friday:

The Jaffna magistrate has banned a demonstration protesting against the military’s appropriation of Tamil residents' lands – even though he has no jurisdiction to do so.

According to the magistrate, the demonstration would threaten national security, create dissension among communities and would be risking the normalisation of armed culture.

The TNPF (Tamil National People’s Front) has applied to the Jaffna High Court to overturn the ban.

Journalists, activists and opposition lawmakers have staged a protest against media suppression and intimidation by the Sri Lankan state.

Dozens of protesters gathered in Colombo on Thursday to condemn the recent police raids of websites critical of the government, the alleged attempted abduction of a journalist and the alleged secret police gathering journalists’’ personal information.

Dozens of unemployed graduates protested in Jaffna today at the lack of opportunity for employment in the public sector due to the dominance of UPFA supporters, reported TamilNet on Thursday.

The Tamil National Alliance has laughed off President Rajapakse’s claim that he will hold provincial council elections in September 2013.

“We want to hold elections in September 2013,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa told The Hindu in an interview published on Wednesday.

“We are working towards it [the elections] in a systematic manner.”

Over 11% of the schools in the Northern provinces of Sri Lanka remain closed due to the continued occupation of the Sri Lankan military, said teachers in Jaffna, using statistics from the Northern provincial ministry of education, reported TamilNet.

Aid from foreign NGOs and the Tamil diaspora has been systematically blocked from reaching Tamil educational institutions.

Article 19, a media freedom organisation based in the UK, has expressed concern over threats to The Sunday Leader editor’s life by Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse.

"The threat against journalist Frederica Jansz is the latest demonstration of the Sri Lankan government’s systematic attacks against independent and opposition-supporting journalists and media houses.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sri Lanka has fallen in 2011, with approximately US$ 300 million invested into the country, according to a report by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).

Although the Ministry of Economic Development tasked the Board of Investment (BOI) with attracting $1 billion, FDI fell short of this target.

Sri Lanka has decided to amend a decades old media law, resulting in the regulation of all news websites and electronic media.

The government made the announcement a week after it raided and temporarily shut down two anti-government websites.

The amendments to the Press Council Law established in 1973, will mean that websites and electronic media will have to adhere to media codes that are set by the Sri Lankan government.